Letter - Let’s get Westgate up to scratch

SO another bar/nightclub/eyesore is set to try and open on our beloved Westgate? Or is it loved anymore?

You only have to raise your eyes above the bar fronts and deep fried takeaway frontages to see that Westgate must have been a prestigious place in its time.

Wakefield in its time of regeneration, has now got a thorn in its side in the form of Westgate.

I recently viewed a property just off Westgate, with a view to opening my own bar.

I wanted it to open mid morning to catch commuters and the such, for coffee and light breakfasts. Then my bar would go on through the day and close around midnight.

I was going to go ahead with the project until one morning when I decided to go for a walk around the area and take a ‘customers’ eye view’.

I wanted to pretend I was a customer at the time of day when I would be trying to attract them.

I must say, it was an eye opener and it was very upsetting. Westgate is a lively bustling place at night, but in the morning it’s a stinking ghost town.

The council does its best to clean the streets with the sweepers etc. but the stench of stale alcohol still remains.

The lovely paving work that the council has done, appears to be already stained by the activities of the night. The yards and streets that go off Westgate stink of urine and vomit, some littered still with last night’s produce.

It’s time the bar and takeaway owners of Westgate started taking more pride in their premises. Westgate is, as it says, a ‘gate’ into the city. Something must be done about the dead zone that now exists during the day.

Bar and takeaway owners take a lot of time and effort to make their business fronts attractive to customers on a night.

I’d like to see them putting the same amount of effort into making their business fronts pleasing to the eye during the day.

Maybe some of the businesses could open during the day to serve hot food, tea and coffee. The bars and takeaways of Westgate need to show initiative and be part of the regeneration of Wakefield, not against it.

So, before another bar opens, let’s get the ones that are already there up to scratch.

Let’s turn Westgate back into something Wakefield can be proud of night and day.